Residents get first look at Newland plan

SAN MARCOS  A proposal to build a master-planned community with roughly 2,100 residences on a rural swath of North County along Interstate 15 was met with mixed reactions — and a lot of concern — by some of the project’s neighbors Wednesday night.

The plan, with the working title Newland Sierra, would see the development built on the same rugged land that was once targeted for a similar but larger and more dense project known as Merriam Mountains, just to the north of Deer Springs Road and west of Interstate 15.

Residents of nearby communities repeatedly raised concerns about traffic, fire safety, water and the rural character of the area — the same criticisms the Merriam Mountains project faced before it was narrowly defeated by the County Board of Supervisors in 2010.

Building a master-planned community at the site would require a zoning change; the area is currently zoned for rural residential uses.

“They (developers) keep trying to get in here. If it’s going to be developed, do it in a way that it was supposed to be laid out,” said area resident Jack Midland.

Midland attended the second of two sessions this week at which Newland officials introduced the project to — and sought input from — residents living on the north end of San Marcos, Escondido and surrounding communities. Between the two meetings, held at the San Marcos Community Center, upwards of 150 people turned out.

“If they change the zoning, that is going to open the flood gates for other development,” said Deborah Settles, who has lives off nearby North Twin Oaks Valley Road to the west of the proposed project.

Not everyone was opposed to the development. Area resident Laura Walls said she found the new plan “500 times better” than the Merriam proposal, and called the Newland project plan “tastefully done.”

“It should work, if the project goes as planned,” she said, adding, “Development is bound to happen.”

The Newland proposal is still in the early stages — nothing is on file with the county planners yet — but it differs from the Merriam Mountains plan in several ways:

• The old project pitched about 2,630 residences; the new one envisions about 2,135 homes.

• The old plan called for about 110,000 square feet of commercial uses and a fire station. The new project sets aside 81,000 square feet for commercial uses, such as a grocery store, and a school.

• Both projects included about 1,200 acres for a preserve.

Newland’s project would also include about 6.5 miles of trails and eight parks, including one reaching about 6 acres.

The Newland property is 1,983 acres; only 380 acres would be developed. That land is all on the south side of the project; the northern end would be set aside as the preserve.

About 64 percent of the houses would be single-family homes; the rest would be townhomes. There are no apartments or condos in the project.

It would consist of five general communities, which would be tucked into the topography and not visible from outside of the Newland project, developers said.

Each community would have 250 feet of defensible space around it to enhance fire protection, and the homes would have fire-resistant roofs and closed eaves.

As for traffic improvements, part of the plan would be to widen Deer Springs Road to four lanes near the freeway, keep the rest of it at two lanes headed west until it reaches Sarver Lane. At that point, the road would widen out to four lanes.

The soonest the plan could hit the Board of Supervisors for consideration is about 18 months; the earliest the first home would go up is 2020.